Since its foundation, the University of Bayreuth (UBT) has been expanding its international relations in a targeted, strategic manner, among other things, with Gateway Offices in Oceania, Asia, and now also in Europe – even reaching out towards Africa. Now the UBT opened a Gateway Office in France.
University President Prof. Dr. Stefan Leible says:
“With this office, we are one step closer to our goal of being strategically represented at selected hubs worldwide. Despite digital communication and all the options we have to make contact these days, the fact remains that research and teaching thrive on personal exchange, representation, and continuously responding to the local environment. We can guarantee this with our Gateway Offices.”
“Bordeaux is an important location insofar as it is a centre for cutting-edge research that often ties in with the focus areas of UBT”, adds Prof. Dr. Thomas Scheibel, Vice President for Internationalisation at the University of Bayreuth. The Université de Bordeaux, the Université Bordeaux Montaigne, and the Institut Sciences Po Bordeaux represent a large cluster of universities which are leaders in specialist areas included in the key focus areas of the University of Bayreuth: law, business and economics, chemistry, physics, materials science, and especially polymer research and African studies.
Dr. Arnim Heinemann, Director of the International Office of the University of Bayreuth, explains the purpose of the office in Bordeaux:
“First of all, it is a point of contact and information to promote the exchange of French, South European, and North African students and lecturers with Bayreuth. Furthermore, it will assist and strengthen the existing cooperation in research and teaching. It will also establish and nurture new contacts with local and regional institutions in science and business, and become a permanent node in an international network that extends from southern Europe to the Mediterranean region.”
Specific tasks include support in the acquisition of funding, and the selection of qualified French, South European, and North African students and doctoral candidates for joint study and doctoral programmes with the University of Bayreuth: “We are always mindful of making the Bayreuth campus more international through our Gateway Offices”, Heinemann explains.
In doing so, UBT can draw on a tradition of cooperation. Specifically, the (further) development of joint programmes is now in the pipeline: the Franco-German Bachelor of Law (LL.B) (sponsored by Université franco-allemande), the double degree ‘Development Studies (M.Sc.)’ and the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree (EMJMD) EIMAS –European Interdisciplinary Master of African Studies together with Université Bordeaux Montaigne and the University of Porto.
